Report: US Has Access to More Than 100 Military Sites Across Australia

US military interests control or have access to more than 100 defence facilities across Australia, according to new data compiled by the Nautilus Institute and published by Guardian Australia.

The analysis found the United States military directly controls 17 facilities on mainland Australia and has access to a further 75 Australian-run military installations. US defence corporations have access to an additional 18 sites, the report said.

According to the findings, the facilities support a range of functions including intelligence gathering, access to satellite data for targeting information, and communications intercepts. Some sites are used for training, including a dry-season rotation of 2,500 US marines based in the Northern Territory.

Other facilities are described as pre-positioning locations for warfighting assets such as Osprey aircraft, as well as logistics hubs storing weapons, munitions and fuel that could be used in the event of a conflict in the Pacific, the report said.

Some analysts quoted in the report characterized the scale of the US presence as a form of "saturation" or even "colonisation" of the Australian continent's military infrastructure. The report raises questions among some observers about whether the extensive US access could affect Australia's ability to independently determine its involvement in future conflicts.

Guardian Australia's reporting includes an interactive map detailing the location and function of the facilities identified in the Nautilus Institute's data.